


The Future of Feelings

by RedBluePalatar (TheAuthorGod)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ambassador Lance, Galra Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith and Future!Lance, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) is Missing, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Telepathy, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 19:31:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10748316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAuthorGod/pseuds/RedBluePalatar
Summary: [HIATUS] Keith doesn't feel like he has anything special.  Allura has stepped into the leader role as the Black Paladin.  Hunk has unlocked Yellow's newest powers.  Pidge made upgrades to Green.  And now Lance could communicate with everyone telepathically.What exactly was it that Keith could do?  And where the hell is this place?  Did Red send him here?





	The Future of Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome!!!
> 
> Just a reminder that I also take [Fanfiction Commissions starting at $5](http://feartheophanim.tumblr.com/commissions). It would be super helpful to me.
> 
> I also have a [Patreon Page](https://www.patreon.com/theauthorgod) and I think I'm going to have to set up a Kofi... everyone has a Kofi these days.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Come on, Paladins; we can form Voltron if we focus our energies.” Allura’s voice sounded shrill after almost 5 hours trying to perform the singular task of forming Voltron.  
  
Lance’s voice came next, but it wasn’t through the comms and it was quite jarring. He sounded more frustrated than he did on the comms. “You’re going to have to stop calling us ‘Paladins’ now that you’re the Black Paladin. Call us ‘team’ or something, sheesh.”  
  
Where the lions had been zooming through their newest stop’s thin atmosphere, they came to a stop, except for Lance’s.  
  
Through the comms, Pidge spoke first, “Did Lance just talk in your heads, too?”  
  
“I did no such thing.” Lance’s voice was more suave outside of Keith’s head. He wondered if the others picked up the same difference. “I mean, I’d know if I did that, right?”  
  
Allura’s voice, now excited instead of frustrated, came next. “Not necessarily. This is amazing. I’ve heard of the telepathic powers of Voltron but to experience them…” She trailed off.  
  
Although Hunk hadn’t spoken yet, he was the first of the stilled lions to move. He landed on the surface of the rocky planet, immediately digging in with his lion’s exclusive claws, anchoring him there. “So, then it’s normal?”  
  
“I wouldn’t say normal.” The black lion flew over near the yellow lion. She didn’t land the lion since the planet didn’t have enough gravity for that.  
  
It was a partially destroyed planet, half of it was gouged with craters and fractured. The orbit of this planet around its star was littered with asteroid that had broken off of the planet. There were small signs that life had once been on the planet long ago, but nothing since. It was the perfect place for Voltron to train. There was no one to get hurt and lots of weird gravity to make things interesting.  
  
Allura continued. “Since the paladins are linked telepathically to their lions and the lions are linked telepathically to each other, it is possible for the Paladins of Voltron to communicate in this way. It’s not something that all sets of Paladins are destined to unlock, but it would seem that Lance had managed it just fine.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “How about we take a break from trying to form Voltron and try to do this instead?”  
  
There was a shrug evident in Hunk’s voice when he responded. “No offense, but I have no idea how to even begin trying.” There was a grunting sound, like he was physically straining himself while trying to send his thoughts to them. Instead of telepathy, the yellow lion materialized her rock canon, loaded it, and shot it without aim.  
  
It flew toward the green lion.  
  
Keith jolted forward in his seat, about to take action, when the green lion materialized its green-energy net. It tossed a few strands of it toward the flying boulder and, kind of like a lasso, changed its trajectory, sending it in a different direction.  
  
“Watch where you shoot that thing!” Pidge cried once the crisis was averted.  
  
“Sorry. I was trying to communicate using my mind. I guess, I did it wrong.” The yellow lion shrugged a little, though it didn’t let go of the planet’s surface.  
  
Lance’s voice cut in. “Forget Hunk. Pidge, when did you learn to do that?” He flew in a huge loop-de-loop coming to a stop next to the green lion.  
  
“I dunno, I made some minor changes to Green’s software. I wanted to see if I could shield other objects, not just me. Turns out that Green’s only got one energy-field generator, so I can’t make other fields, but I managed to make it a bit more flexible.” They were smirking; Keith could tell. “As you just saw.”  
  
“That was so cool.”  
  
“I could probably whip up some other shield generators if you need.”  
  
“Maybe we could put them on all of the lions.”  
  
Keith didn’t know what to say. Each time he thought he knew what to say, someone else would cut in and make his point irrelevant. He growled a little.  
  
“Hey, Keith? What’s up? You’ve been pretty quiet.” Just what Keith needed, Lance being nosy.  
  
Suddenly, all of the other lions were looking at him, like they were waiting for his to say something. But, Keith didn’t have anything to say and all of their stares were making him nervous. He pulled on his levers and turned his head away from his screen. “I need some air.” And with that, he left them at the planet’s surface and flew out toward its greater orbit.  
  
It didn’t seem fair. Everyone else was learning things and doing cool stuff. Lance could talk directly into their minds. All of their lions had cool extra abilities. Pidge had even modified her lion.  
  
Keith couldn’t do that. He was a pilot not a techie or an engineer or anything else.  
  
What could Keith do?  
  
Oh, right. Keith was an alien. Yeah, that was his being reveal. He was a fucking alien, the same kind of alien that they were currently waging a war against.  
  
Once he was far enough away that he thought he could think, he let go of the control columns, tore off his helmet, and shut off the comms. They were chatting about telepathy again, and he wasn’t in the mood.  
  
He was once the best pilot in the garrison. He used to be something, but now he was just the alien outsider on the team and it didn’t feel good. Hunk and Allura, though they meant well, managed to single him out as Galra more often than was strictly necessary, and Pidge and Coran seemed to go out of the way to ignore it.  
  
At least Lance seemed to care. He’d ask Keith questions, make sure he was okay, and all of it without taking another breath. It was all smooth and perfectly integrated into conversations and arguments. Despite that he and Lance seemed to have the worst methods of communicating, the more he analyzed it, the more he realized that at least they were communicating.  
  
Keith could sit on the sofa next to Hunk and have a perfectly good conversation about nothing in particular. Maybe they talked about Hunk’s favorite food or about Keith’s jacket or about the customs of the most recent planet they were on, but they were all so superficial; there was no depth to them.  
  
Talking with Allura was worse. She seemed to have a lot more emotions that Keith didn’t understand or respond to correctly. Maybe it was a difference between how Galrans and Alteans think and feel, but Keith thought it was more plausible that the two of them just didn’t click well enough to have meaningful conversations.  
  
Pidge was monosyllabic with everyone and Coran was the opposite; you could start a conversation with Coran, and he’d talk to himself the rest of the time, asking questions, answering questions, all until he walked away having talked himself into running diagnostics or some other maintenance task.  
  
And Shiro was missing.  
  
So, Keith was left with Lance to talk to, but they usually ended up yelling.  
  
He sighed and slouched into his command chair. Maybe he just didn’t have the right wiring. Ugh. He brought the heels of his hands to his eyes. Maybe it was a Galra-thing. He hated having Galra-things. It made him feel even more on the outside.  
  
Red moved. She did a little body-roll-wiggle thing that caught Keith’s attention. She purred at him and through the connection, asked him to bring his hands away from his face. It was like she was cooing at a child.  
  
But Keith wasn’t a child. So, he didn’t listen.  
  
Maybe that made him more like a child, like a child throwing a tantrum.  
  
Her purr turned into a growl, which only caused him to growl back.  
  
“What?!?” He yelled into the cockpit as he pulled his hands from his eyes.  
  
There was a knowing murmur in the back of his head then, suddenly, it wasn’t the cockpit anymore. There was a swooping sensation in Keith’s gut, and, without any other warning, he was standing in front of a closet. It was filled with clothes that looked alien to him, but upon a closer look he realized ony half of them were. On one side, there were long capes and robes, tunics and gems; on the other were a few pairs of jeans and t-shirts.  
  
Where was he?  
  
“Hey, Keith, do you think the Consulate would mind if I ditched the cape?” It was Lance’s voice, but it sounded different. Keith couldn’t pinpoint the difference, though.  
  
He wasn’t sure what to say, so he turned around to ask Lance to better explain his question, but…  
  
Lance was standing there. His hair was longer, fluffier and he had grown. He was holding up one of the hangers holding a tunic, pants, and a cape. He was looking at himself in a full-length mirror.  
  
“Uh?” Keith’s mouth had gone dry. Behind the hanging clothes, Lance was wearing only a pair of boxer-briefs, showing off muscles that Keith didn’t know he had.  
  
Slowly, he trailed his eyes up to Lance’s face in the mirror, but it wasn’t really Lance. His was older. He had scruff and a ridged jaw line and piercing blue eyes. Well, he already had piercing blue eyes, but the ones that flicked over to look back at him seemed… deeper.  
  
Lance whirled around. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve never seen me before. You didn’t hit your head last night, did you?” He winked lewdly.  
  
What? Keith’s face began to fill in pink.  
  
What was going on?


End file.
